Our plane has been hijacked.

D
N
!
A
L OW
N
9/11
AN ANNIVERSARY WORTH
REMEMBERING BY SHANNON SALINSKY
We at Flight Journal consider it to be an honor to present stories of those who were
directly involved in the events of 9/11 as pilots or flight crew. This is yet another view of
the event that has shaped our present and our future.
“Our plane has been hijacked.
Flight attendant #1 stabbed. Flight attendant #5
stabbed. A business class passenger’s throat has been
slashed and he is bleeding severely and may be dead.
The captain is not flying the aircraft. Something’s
terribly wrong. I see the water. I see the buildings.”
After a short pause, she says, “We are flying low. We
are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low!
Oh my God!” The phone went dead.
42 flightjournal.com
OCTOBER 2011 43
LAND NOW!
SHANNON S.
SALINSKY
AMERICAN AIRLINES
MANAGEMENT
“A colleague relayed this information to us on
a conference call at approximately 10:30 a.m.
central time at American Airlines headquarters in
Fort Worth. One of the flight attendants aboard
hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 was able to
connect with a manager at her base in Boston
and relayed crucial information shortly before
the aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center.
“Earlier, I was driving into work on a gorgeous
Tuesday morning. The DJ of my favorite radio
station said it was the 11th day of September and
just in from the newsroom was a report that a
small general aviation aircraft had hit one of the
World Trade Center towers. I thought to myself,
‘How horrible’ and figured that someone flying
solo had probably had a heart attack at the yoke
or something.
“I continued my commute and, just as I
whipped into the parking lot, the DJ broke in and
said something I’ll never forget. ‘I don’t mean to
start a rumor and this is completely my personal
opinion … I could be wrong, but this doesn’t
feel like an accident to me.’ And with the hair
standing on the back of my neck, I grabbed my
briefcase and headed into my job at American
Airlines headquarters office in Ft. Worth, Texas.”
Shannon Salinsky had just started the longest
day at work she would ever have.
Every minute of that day seemed like an
eternity for most Americans, but most especially
for airline crew members and pilots everywhere.
Overseas, Captain Jon Smith
begins his day
CAPTAIN JON SMITH
PILOT, UNITED
AIRLINES FLIGHT 22
BOEING 767
FLIGHT PLAN:
FRANKFURT,
GERMANY BOUND
FOR DALLAS/FT.
WORTH (DFW)
In Frankfurt, Germany, flight operations was
buzzing with the familiar sound of dot matrix
printers kicking out flight plans. It was 9:00 a.m.
in Frankfurt and 3:00 a.m. in New York. A sea
of pilots in navy blue made small talk over cups
of coffee while milling about operations. As the
smell of jet fuel filled his lungs, the first officer
conducted a routine “walk-around inspection” of
the Boeing 767 aircraft.
In command of United Airlines Flight 22, bound
for Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) was Capt. Jon Smith.
After the crew preflight briefing and as the flight
prepared for boarding, station personnel notified
Capt. Smith that there was a sensitive security
issue with a small group of passengers regarding
proper documents and more scrutiny would need
to be applied to the passenger manifest before
the flight could depart. The security officials
eventually cleared all the passengers for boarding
and the flight departed 40 minutes late.
A few hours into the flight and typical for a
long haul flight, the crew tuned the VHF radio
to the common radio frequency where pilots
exchange general information such as turbulence
levels as they cross the Atlantic Ocean.
It was reported over the common radio
frequency that a small aircraft had hit the World
Trade Center. Capt. Smith and crew thought
it was sad, but shrugged it off as perhaps bad
weather or fog. Fall was approaching the East
Coast and that would not be out of the ordinary
given the time of year. What they couldn’t know
at the time was how gorgeous the weather was
along the entire eastern seaboard and it was not
fog that caused this crash.
7:45 a.m. EST: Terrorists begin boarding in Boston
Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari board
American Airlines Flight 11. It departed 14
minutes late from Boston Logan International
(BOS) bound for Los Angeles (LAX) with five other
hijackers onboard. None of the passengers seated
near them could know that their seatmates had
been training for years for a mission they would
soon execute that would change America forever.
An airline captain and a Green
Air Force lieutenant arrive at
work
Capt. Wayne Weyer of American Airlines hadn’t
yet heard that anything unusual was happening
in New York. He was on the fourth of a four-day
Penney was a young first lieutenant, freshly
qualified on the F-16, and was totally by the book
and still learning her craft.
CAPTAIN WAYNE
WEYER
PILOT, AMERICAN
AIRLINES FLIGHT 156
BOEING 757
FLIGHT PLAN:
DALLAS/FT.
WORTH (DFW)
TO SAN JUAN (SJU)
trip. The B757 aircraft taxied to the runway and
made its scheduled departure time of 7:30 a.m.
EST time.
American Airlines Flight 156 lifted off on a
beautiful Caribbean morning for a short hop back
to San Juan (SJU). From there it was scheduled
to fly to Miami International Airport (MIA) and
then back to DFW.
AIR FORCE
FIRST LT.
HEATHER
PENNEY
PILOT
ANDREWS AFB
F-16
As Weyer climbed his airliner up to cruise
altitude in the Caribbean, Air Force First Lt.
Heather Penney saluted the Andrews AFB gate
guard on a beautiful autumn day as she drove
onto the base. She was in awe, as always, on the
drive past the flightline as the jets lined up like
soldiers. The familiar smells of jet fuel filled the
air and the sounds of APU carts and the highpitched whistle of an engine running at idle in
the distance reverberated in her ears.
“For a time it was just another Tuesday morning.
We had just returned from a Red Flag operations
training mission. You never hope to go to war, but
there is still a tremendous satisfaction in exercising
the skill sets and capabilities for such. Red Flag was
a tremendous success. Our commander had given
us that Monday off to reconnect with our families,
so Tuesday was our first day back.”
CLIFF ROBERTSON
ACTOR AND ACTIVE
PILOT
FLIGHT PLAN:
LONG ISLAND,
NEW YORK
LOS ANGELES, CA
Terrorists depart Boston, Newark
and Washington and actor Cliff
Robertson prepares to take off
General aviation pilot and Academy Awardwinning actor Cliff Robertson was at his East
Hampton, Long Island, New York, hangar
kicking the tires of his Beechcraft Baron 58 and
methodically completing his preflight checklist
shortly after 8:00 a.m. EST. He was headed
westbound to California for a business meeting.
8:14 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175, Boeing 767,
departs from BOS bound for (LAX) with five hijackers aboard.
8:20 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing
757, departs from Washington Dulles International
Airport (IAD) for LAX with five hijackers aboard.
8:42 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757,
takes off from Newark International Airport (EWR),
bound for San Francisco International Airport
(SFO), with four hijackers aboard.
8:44 am: Only minutes into the flight, Flight 175
from BOS is hijacked.
8:46 a.m.: Flight 11, the first LAX-bound flight out
of Boston, crashes at roughly 466mph, or 425
knots, into the north face of the North Tower of
the World Trade Center (WTC), between floors 93
and 99.
8:50 a.m.: Hijacking begins on Flight 77.
8:58 a.m.: Flight 175, another Boston to LAX flight,
takes a heading toward New York City.
LAND NOW!
The Air Force gets the word
Lt. Penney’s squadron bay was empty and very
quiet as some of their people were still on leave.
It was a crystal blue and gorgeous September
day. They were gathering for a long-range
scheduling meeting, trying to nail down who
was on first base as they began to move into a
different training phase.
She remembers, “There was a knock at the
door and someone said, ‘Hey, an airplane just
flew into the World Trade Center.’ We thought,
‘Gosh, it’s a gorgeous day here. New York isn’t
that far away … what kind of bozo would hit
such a large building, was there a layer of scud
running up and down the Hudson?’”
Another knock came and someone reported,
“A second plane has hit the second World
Trade Center tower, and it may have been on
purpose.”
Penney and others went into the squadron
bar and turned on the news. “The whole world
had made the assumption that it was small
aircraft that hit the towers, yet we were just
then discovering they were airliners.
“We stood in the doorway watching the
coverage for what felt like eternity, but was
probably only a minute or so. We all said the
same thing: ‘We’re fighter pilots. We absolutely
HAVE to get airborne.’ ”
“THAT IS CORRECT. 2 ACFT—APPARENTLY AAL
HAVE HIT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN NYC.
UAL HAS ALSO LOST A FLIGHT.”
An actor in a real-life drama
Robertson, a lifelong pilot says, “Just as I got
east of Manhattan, I saw a big puff of smoke on
the south end of the island, but I really didn’t
think much of it. I just thought it was some
kind of industrial activity around the New York
area.”
Keeping a westbound heading, he didn’t see
any other aircraft in the sky. “I could see the
smoke and I wondered what it was. I wasn’t
really alarmed at first. It was a beautiful day and
you could see the smoke from the building so
clearly from my altitude.
“I got lower, about 7,000 feet, because I was
curious to know what was happening and then
I saw the second puff of smoke. By now I’m
thinking it was a bomb of some kind. I called
the flight center and asked what the story was.
The said they didn’t know yet.”
A few minutes later, after a pattern of events
had developed and decisions were being made,
ATC called Robertson and said, “527 Romeo,
land at the nearest immediate airport.”
He remembers, “All I could think was that
I’d never been asked to land my aircraft—ever.
That just doesn’t happen in America. But,
given that I’d just seen two huge smoke clouds
coming from New York City and the fact that I
was flying solo with no one else to help analyze
this information, I felt it prudent to follow the
instructions I’d been given and land as soon as
possible.”
New York was well behind him, so he flew to
Allentown, Pennsylvania and there was still no
answer from ATC. He thought that maybe there
was a national disaster like an atom bomb. He
landed in Allentown.
“There were a couple of pilots on the tarmac
when I landed. Everybody was in the same boat
I was, wondering what the hell was going on.”
One of the other pilots said, “We don’t know,
but we’re hearing about more problems on a
farm in Pennsylvania,” Robertson went into
the Fixed Base Operation (FBO). They had
very little information as everyone gathered
around the TV trying to understand what was
happening.
Inbound over the Atlantic:
the threat becomes personal
At approximately 9:00 a.m. EST, Capt. Smith
and United Airlines Flight 22 had left Germany
behind and were over the Atlantic well en route
to DFW. The cabin crew was looking forward
to their days off when they returned to base.
Summer was over, children were back in school
and that first cool breeze would soon blow
across the scorched DFW metroplex.
A flight attendant working in first class
was stopped by a passenger who had been a
participant on a conference call via airphone
with his employer in New York City. “I’m
hearing from my colleagues that an American
Airlines jet just crashed into the World Trade
Center in New York.” Shocked and unable to
catch her breath from the words she’d just
heard, she immediately went to the cockpit to
relay this disturbing report to Capt. Smith and
the flight crew.
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 11
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 175
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 77
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 93
Capt. Smith and the flight deck crew
immediately sensed that the report they had
heard earlier and this rumor may be connected.
With his chest pounding, Smith sent an Aircraft
Communications Addressing and Reporting
System (ACARS) message to Air Traffic Control
(ATC) in hopes of learning more information.
Never in his wildest imagination did he dream
what the ACARS message system would return.
“THAT IS CORRECT. 2 ACFT—APPARENTLY
AAL HAVE HIT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
IN NYC. UAL HAS ALSO LOST A FLIGHT.”
Capt. Smith stared at the incoming ACARS
message in utter disbelief. His head was reeling
and he immediately thought about the group
of passengers on board his flight, which had
required an extra security screening out of
Frankfurt. He had a chilling thought: could his
aircraft be in danger as well?
He told the Purser, “Send the flight attendants
up, a couple at a time. We need to devise a
plan.”
9:03 a.m.: Flight 175, Boston to LAX, crashes
at about 590mph into the south face of the
South Tower of the World trade center, banked
between floors 77 and 85.
Reality hits the airline
community
“I was taking my first day off in over a year, “said
Capt. Tim Adam, director of the Flight Training
Center Operations at United Airlines, “when
my pager began to buzz with a text message
Three of the four hijacked
flights found their targets.
The immediate shutdown
of all flights reportedly
foiled an unknown number
of other hijackings.
LAND NOW!
Lt. Heather Penney taxiing
out on a mission before
9/11. When she took off
on that day, she had barely
enough ammo for a 1-second burst and no missiles.
48 flightjournal.com
that read ’airplane hits world trade center.’ That
was followed with ‘United 175 missing.’ I was
just pulling into my friend’s driveway. It was
around nine o’clock and we had planned on
golfing that day.”
Adam and his friends were no longer in
the frame of mind to play golf and he headed
straight to the Crisis Center in Denver, which
was already activated.
“My boss was already there and, as soon as
I walked in, he told me it was Jason.” When
Adam asked what he meant, his boss said,
“Jason—he was on 93.”
Adam had hired Jason Dahl as the standards
captain. “I had become good friends with him
and his wife. In fact, we were at their house
a few weeks before that fateful day. Jason
volunteered to fly the trip because it would get
him home in time to celebrate his fifth wedding
anniversary. It was a nice, easy two-day trip. It
TIM ADAM DIRECTOR
UNITED AIRLINES
FLIGHT TRAINING
CENTER OPERATIONS
could have been any of our flight managers on
that trip, including me.”
Adam and his colleagues knew, like the three
crashes earlier that day, that there were no
survivors on board. He also knew that Jason
always left his schedule with his wife.
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 11
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 77
Capt. Smith and the flight deck crew
immediately sensed that the report they had
heard earlier and this rumor may be connected.
With his chest pounding, Smith sent an Aircraft
Communications Addressing and Reporting
System (ACARS) message to Air Traffic Control
(ATC) in hopes of learning more information.
Never in his wildest imagination did he dream
what the ACARS message system would return.
“THAT IS CORRECT. 2 ACFT—APPARENTLY
AAL HAVE HIT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
IN NYC. UAL HAS ALSO LOST A FLIGHT.”
Capt. Smith stared at the incoming ACARS
message in utter disbelief. His head was reeling
and he immediately thought about the group
of passengers on board his flight, which had
required an extra security screening out of
Land Now_v6.indd 47
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 175
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 93
Frankfurt. He had a chilling thought: could his
aircraft be in danger as well?
He told the Purser, “Send the flight attendants
up, a couple at a time. We need to devise a
plan.”
Three of the four hijacked
flights found their targets.
The immediate shutdown
of all flights reportedly
foiled an unknown number
of other hijackings.
9:03 a.m.: Flight 175, Boston to LAX, crashes
at about 590mph into the south face of the
South Tower of the World trade center, banked
between floors 77 and 85.
Reality hits the airline
community
“I was taking my first day off in over a year, “said
Capt. Tim Adam, director of the Flight Training
Center Operations at United Airlines, “when
my pager began to buzz with a text message
7/6/11 6:01 PM
the first time in history, a national ground stop
had been instituted.
Frustrated fighter pilots
straining at the bit
At Andrews Air Force Base, the problem with
getting fighters airborne that morning was that
the D.C. National Guard, which was on Andrews
Air Force base, did not belong to NEADS/
NORAD. “We were not an alert squadron. We
did not belong to the Air Defense system for
the U.S,” said Lt. Penney.
The civilian chain of command for a normal
guard unit runs up through the Governor,
which allows them to take care of regional
emergencies. The D.C. International Guard
command goes to the President through the
Secretary of Army, the Secretary of Defense, the
Vice President and finally to the President.
“We had never had to exercise that part of
our command before. How on earth do we get
airborne? We didn’t belong to NORAD or Air
Defense First Air Force and we had no idea how
we would begin to energize our civilian chain of
command in order to get airborne. We couldn’t
get airborne unless we had permission. We were
real-time ad hoc-ing.
Penney says, “The weapons officer said we
needed missiles on the aircraft, so he quickly
called the ammo guys and said they needed to
get some live AIM-9s (heat seekers).
“Those were the only missiles we had and
you have to build those babies up. They’re
located in a non-populated area and the trucks
that they use to haul these things to us move
very slowly. It was going to be at least a couple
of crucial hours before they got those to us.
There was so much confusion. Who do we talk
to? How do we get airborne? How do we get
permission to take off?”
“I have no idea what I said to her; to this day I
still can’t remember. This was the most stressful
professional day of my life. I have a strong
faith and I believe God gave me the words I
needed that day. I gave her confirmation that
her husband was in command of 93 and there
were no survivors. I just listened after that. I’ll
never forget I was sitting on her steps trying to
comfort her while the media was putting his
photo on TV.”
Adam said the first few hours were a blur.
Soon the Dahl residence phone was ringing
off the hook with people like Connie Chung
and Peter Jennings wanting an interview. “We
protected her privacy the best we could.”
An unprecedented decision:
all traffic is grounded
At 9:26 a.m. EST, the FAA banned takeoffs of
all civilian aircraft regardless of destination. For
9:28 a.m.: Hijackers storm the cockpit on Flight
93 over Pennsylvania and take over the flight.
9:37 a.m.: Flight 77 crashes into the western
side of the Pentagon.
Stranded in San Juan
After landing at San Juan, Captain Weyer
taxied to one of the gates on the south side
of American’s terminal. With a short ground
time, Captain Weyer left his first officer to do
the walk-around as he went into operations to
check the weather and gather the paperwork
and the flight plan.
While standing in operations, he saw news
footage covering the north World Trade Center
tower. “When I looked up it was belching black
smoke from what looked like a hole in the side
of the building.”
Someone in operations said, “A small aircraft
crashed into World Trade Center in New York.”
october 2011 49
Land now!
FAA flight status of aircraft
in the air after 9/11 attack
in 2001, Chantilly, Virginia.
Then, unbelievably, a few minutes later, a
second aircraft, which looked eerily like a
commercial airliner, crashed into the second
tower.
“Shaken, I returned with the paperwork to
the aircraft. My co-pilot had heard from some
of our ground personnel what was happening,
“U.S. airSpace iS cloSed to all aircraft,
State yoUr intentionS.”
and I told him what I had just seen on TV.
About that time, our push-out crew chief called
us on the intercom and said that he had heard
that one of our (AA’s) airplanes had just crashed
into the Pentagon.
“My first officer and I just looked at each
other in utter disbelief. I remember how it
seemed to become much more real and much
more personal to me when I heard that one of
our airplanes was involved. A few minutes later,
with all passengers on board, the entry door
closed and the jet bridge pulled back, my first
officer called Ramp Control for our clearance to
be pushed back and to start our engines. Just
then, out of the corner of my left eye, I saw
our agent standing in the jetbridge doorway
waving her arms wildly to get our attention.
Almost simultaneously, our push crew relayed
to us that the push-back was cancelled and
that ‘They’re shutting the whole thing down.’”
What happened next is one of my most vivid
memories of that day that I’ll never forget—my
first officer slowly and methodically took off
his headset, took a long breath, turned to me
and said, ‘You know, Wayne, this feels different.
50 flightjournal.com
This job will never be the same again.’ I later
learned that those were prophetic words.”
Capt. Weyer stood at the entry door as the
passengers deplaned; partially to console them
and partially to be consoled. He shared what
little information he had with the passengers
because many of them had no idea what was
happening.
The crew called a nearby hotel to secure
rooms, knowing that it would likely be days
before they would fly home.
“The hotel lobby had two large TVs, which
were attracting a steadily growing crowd. I
stopped to watch (how could you not?) and it
was there I saw the collapse of the first tower.
Having just been at the top of that tower six
weeks prior after taking my nephew to New
York for a short trip as a graduation gift, I
was well aware of the size of the World Trade
Center towers. Unbelievable! Even an airliner
shouldn’t be able to bring down something
that huge, should it?
“I went to my room, unpacked and turned my
cell phone on. Over 30 messages were waiting
for me. Concerns from a lot of people definitely
made me feel better. I guess experiencing the
love and decency of family and friends was an
antidote to the utter inhumanity unfolding
around us.”
The crew met up for lunch. Several of the
flight attendants were very distraught. Capt.
Weyer’s cabin crew, which he had just picked
up in San Juan, was Boston-based and they
had just flown in that morning on an early
departure from (BOS). They knew, and had even
spoken with, some of the Boston-based flight
attendants who had perished that morning
when Flight 11 crashed into the first Tower.
Providing a defense wasn’t
easy
The frustration level on Andrews Air Force base
was growing. Lt. Heather Penney remembers,
“I felt very unemotional—my main frustration
was we plan, we study, we train, we practice
how to go to war yet here we were, involved
in something where we had no idea what was
happening or what the threat was. We had no
idea how to energize our chain of command.
We all wanted to contribute and do what we
had trained to do, but no one knew how to get
there from here. We were not dealing with a
well-oiled machine.
“Finally someone said the Vice President
had called the Tower and said, ‘Get someone
airborne!’ and that was all that we needed.
“We had a ton of gear to put on and, as a fresh,
young lieutenant, I was trying to remember
everything. Finally, we got to the jets.”
Penney says, “This was not a scheduled takeoff
and everything was happening on the fly.
Typically, there is a very regimented scheduled
take off time; maintenance is down there two
hours prior to departure going through their
checks, the forms are ready. The pilots show up
and shake the crew chief’s hand, take a look at
the 781s, do your walk around, and then start
to build your nest in the cockpit. There is a very
specific order of how to fire the aircraft—pilots
say the same thing every time. The crew chief
says the same thing every time. It’s all of these
things that put you into the zone to go fly.
It’s totally memorized and almost like a wellchoreographed dance. This day, the dance was
moving to a different rhythm. ”
Flight 77 had already hit the Pentagon and
by the time Penney took off, the FAA had closed
all the airspace. Penney said that basically, after
they launched, she was a VFR F-16 equipped
with radar and headed westbound and looking
for “something.” Exactly what, she didn’t yet
know. By the time they started off in a westerly
direction, Flight 93 had already crashed in
Pennsylvania.
“Not knowing yet if any other aircraft were
going to be hijacked, after we were airborne,
a free fire zone was exerted; essentially, those
were our rules of engagement. This meant
that each fighter pilot had total authority to
hit the button if we thought it was warranted.
It was an incredible testament of courage,
professionalism and diligence of everyone who
flew those three days. No one got trigger-happy.
“We had such permissive rules of engagement
and yet we had no one with a happy finger
on the button. It was a true testament to the
professionalism and restraint of the individuals
who flew during that first week.
“In addition, the rigor to which we
investigated and do what we needed to do that
day was amazing. All of it strengthens my faith
in the military.”
The actual facts are that the only permissions
given were to take off and there were no official
rules of engagement given the pilots. Those
were issued long after the fact that night.
When the aircraft took off, all they were told
was to protect the airspace at all costs. Do
whatever was necessary to make sure that no
aircraft penetrated the DC-area airspace. This
was a tall order considering the aircraft were
essentially unarmed: the missiles wouldn’t
arrive until entirely too late and all they were
able to procure prior to takeoff was 100 rounds
of 20mm practice ammunition per aircraft.
Practice ammo would have been of limited use
because they are solid slugs, not high explosive.
Plus, 100 rounds wasn’t even a one-second
burst. Hidden in the grim order to protect the
airspace at all cost, even though unarmed, was
an unspoken expectation that to complete their
mission a pilot may have to ram an airliner and
eject, if possible.
Are there bad guys on board?
While Lt. Penney was milling around the
East Coast at 500mph, out over the Atlantic,
Capt. Smith was still devising a strategic plan
to protect his cockpit and the rest of the crew
and passengers. After communicating with
his entire cabin crew, he then instructed the
first officer to disable the airphone system. If
“Finally someone said the Vice
President had called the tower and
said, ‘Get someone airborne!’
there were terrorists on his flight, at least they
wouldn’t be able to communicate with any
other planes.
Knowing he still had his relief pilot if needed,
next on his impromptu plan was to have the
first officer change his clothes before he left the
cockpit. Captain Smith wanted him to blend
in with the rest of the passengers. He then
instructed him to sit in first class, where he was
close to the cockpit.
“Prior to 9/11, it was not at all uncommon
for pilots to have a small pocketknife on them.
I instructed my first officer to sit in the cabin
and watch every move every passenger made. I
instructed him to keep his pocketknife on him
and readily available. The last set of instructions
I gave him was to get physical, if needed, and
not let anyone come near the cockpit for any
reason.”
As they closed in on U.S. airspace, they
made their initial contacts with air traffic. ATC
october 2011 51